A Price Above Rubies

Infobox Film
name = A Price Above Rubies


image_size =
caption =
director = Boaz Yakin
producer = Lawrence Bender
writer = Boaz Yakin
narrator =
starring = Renée Zellweger
Christopher Eccleston
Julianna Margulies
music = Lesley Barber
cinematography = Adam Holender
editing = Arthur Coburn
distributor = Miramax Films
released = flagicon|USA 25 March 1998
runtime = 117 min.
country = UK/USA
language = English
budget =
gross =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id = 1:160458
imdb_id = 0120793

A Price Above Rubies was a 1998 movie directed by Boaz Yakin, starring Renée Zellweger as a young woman who finds it hard to adapt to the restrictions imposed on her by the Hasidic community of her husband, played by Glenn Fitzgerald. Reviews of the movie were mixed, though generally positive to Zellweger's performance. The title is a biblical quote. Proverbs 31:10, in the King James translation, says "Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies."

Plot

The film tells the story of Sonia (Zellweger), a young Brooklyn woman who has just given birth to her first child. She is married, through an arranged marriage, to Mendel (Fitzgerald), a devout Hasidic Jew who is too immersed in his studies to give his wife the attention she craves. As a result, Sonia develops a relationship with Mendel's brother, the jeweller Sender (Eccleston), who brings her into the business. Sender rapes her, but she seems to accept this as the price for her newfound freedom. The jewellery business brings her into close contact with the young Puerto Rican jeweller Ramon (Payne), but when Sender finds out about their connection he reveals it to the family, and Sonia is divorced and ostracised.

Reception

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the movie three stars. While impressed by Zellweger's "ferociously strong performance", he found the film did not teach us "much about her society", and that the Hasidic community could have been treated in greater depth. [cite web | url = http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19980403/REVIEWS/804030306/1023 | title = A Price Above Rubies | publisher = Chicago Sun-Times | author = Roger Ebert | date = 1998-04-03 | accessdate = 2008-01-14] Charles Taylor of Salon likewise appreciated Zellweger's performance, while also finding the cultural aspect treated too superficially. He described Sonia's choices as "clichés left over from the Liberated Woman movies of 20 years ago", and the movie generally as "that old middle-of-the-road groaner about the good and bad in every race". [cite web | url = http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/1998/03/27price.html | title = She shtups to conquer | publisher = Salon.com | author = Charles Taylor | date = 1998-03-27 | accessdate = 2008-01-14] Maria Garcia of Film Journal International was more positively inclined to the movie, and called it a "beautifully wrought, skillfully rendered and brilliantly acted film". [cite web | url = http://www.filmjournal.com/filmjournal/reviews/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000698149 | title = Price Above Rubies, A | publisher = Film Journal International | author = Maria Garcia | date = | accessdate = 2008-01-14]

Cast

References

External links

*imdb title|id=0120793|title=A Price Above Rubies
* [http://uk.rottentomatoes.com/m/price_above_rubies/ A Price Above Rubies] at Rotten Tomatoes.